Tag: Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

17th August 2021.

When I first read Sherlock Holmes as a teenager, I didn’t fully appreciate or understand his character or the subtleties of his relationship with Dr Watson. These developed over the series of short stories which make up this collection. While Watson is in awe of Sherlock’s brilliance, the good doctor is not oblivious to the negative traits either.

The stories are not your usual detective fayre. Holmes has a flair for the unusual cases, which grow in complexity as the series develops. All the clues are there as he deduces what is happening based on observations and logical reasoning. In addition to his mental abilities, he’s also portrayed as a man of action, always willing to right an injustice.

This makes the stories memorable and a little different. The narrated style makes for an easy and entertaining read. These stories, written over 120 years ago, have stood the test of time, which probably explains why Sherlock Holmes is still popular today.

Description

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, which had been published in twelve monthly issues of The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. The stories are collected in the same sequence, which is not supported by any fictional chronology. The only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson and all are related in first-person narrative from Watson’s point of view.

In general the stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes identify, and try to correct, social injustices. Holmes is portrayed as offering a new, fairer sense of justice. The stories were well received, and boosted the subscriptions figures of The Strand Magazine, prompting Doyle to be able to demand more money for his next set of stories. The first story, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, includes the character of Irene Adler, who, despite being featured only within this one story by Doyle, is a prominent character in modern Sherlock Holmes adaptations, generally as a love interest for Holmes. Doyle included four of the twelve stories from this collection in his twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, picking “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” as his overall favourite.

The Adventures f Sherlock Holmes

Reviews and posts from the blogtour

Check out the links to read the full reviews and posts from the No Accident blog tour between 20-30th August 2017.

An extraordinary detective thriller – Bits About Books.

A clever, original and highly enjoyable thriller – Booksaremycwtches.

Could an environmental health officer solve a murder? – Anne bonny Book Reviews

I enjoyed the humour scattered throughout – Ali – The Dragon Slayer

An entertaining and enjoyable mystery – Novel Deelights

A different concept to a crime story – Sweet Little Books

I have a new fictional hero! – Ignite Bookblog

I warmed to Kent Fisher straight away  – A Lover of Books

Murder on Mystery Island by Colin Garrow

30-10-2019.  5 stars.

This is the fifth in the Watson Letters series, a deliciously funny and inventive spoof of Baker Street’s finest. Set in a parallel universe where almost anything goes, the events in the story echo a certain novel by Agatha Christie, where those present are killed one by one.

Thrust into this island of murder and intrigue are Dr Watson and his wife, Mary, who reveal a somewhat different slant on Sherlock Holmes and his prowess as a detective. Nothing and no one is spared from the author’s irreverent humour and invention. Agatha Christie’s character is a hoot and will live long in my memory, if only for her rather unusual jodhpurs.

As almost everyone becomes a suspect, the pace hots up towards a terrific finale that could almost have come out of a James Bond film. Totally absorbing and endlessly inventive, with memorable characters and some wickedly funny lines and moments, Murder on Mystery Island had me chuckling from start to finish.

Unlike previous books in the series, which featured three stories, this was a full length novel, which worked well and offered even more opportunities to mercilessly spoof the original, while remaining faithful to Conan Doyle’s style and approach.

Congratulations to the author on another wonderfully entertaining story in this great series.

Description

When consumptive Doctor Edward Armstrong turns up at Baker Street with an invitation to visit a mysterious island, Sherlock Holmes smells a rat. Sounding deviously similar to the plot of a recent novel by celebrated lady author Mrs Christie, Holmes decides to send his inveterate side-kick Watson to the island, along with the Doctor’s lovely, but wonky-eyed wife, Mary, and a well-known Scotland Yard detective. Taking Armstrong’s place, the team determine to find out exactly what’s going on, but before they’ve even left the mainland, one of the guests is murdered.

Murder on Mystery Island

Robert Crouch – Author Interview

Colin Garrow is one of my favourite authors with his irreverent Sherlock Holmes spoof, The Watson Letters.

He recently interviewed me for his blog, asking some interesting and searching questions about my writing and the Kent Fisher series. Please click here to read the interview and let me know what you think. If you have any questions, please ask away.

A home from Holmes

Environmental health officer turned sleuth, Kent Fisher, faces his most baffling and challenging mystery to date in No Remorse, due for release next Monday, 7th May 2018. The mystery centres on the picturesque village of East Dean. Kent’s faithful assistant and West Highland Terrier, Columbo, has already sniffed out the first clue.

Sherlock Holmes Cottage

Nestled in a valley of the South Downs, a mile inland from Birling Gap on the coast, East Dean once had a famous resident. If you look closely at the left hand side of the flint cottage in the photograph above, you’ll notice a blue plaque on the wall.

Sherlock Holmes plaque

I wanted to pay tribute to one of my favourite detectives in No Remorse, and set Nightingales, the luxury care home at the centre of the mystery, in East Dean. Its owner is Kieran Sherlock, who runs Sherlock’s Homes, a company providing residential care for the well-heeled. It sounds corny, I know, but the links to the fictional detective continue with receptionist, Louise Watson, who soon catches Kent’s eye.

Nightingales is a fictional home, set above the village on the slopes of the South Downs, close to the house you can see in the photo below.

No visit to East Dean would be complete without a stop at the Tiger Inn on the village green. While Kent interviews Miss Watson inside, Columbo sniffs out yet another clue to solve the baffling mystery surrounding Anthony Trimble’s death at Nightingales.

‘No Remorse echoes more modern crime novels, such as the alphabet mysteries of Sue Grafton and Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks books.’
Will Hatchett, editor of Environmental Health News.

Click here to read the full review.

No Remorse is available for pre-order on Amazon and published on 7th May 2018.

The Curse of the Baskervilles by Colin Garrow

August 2017

5/5 stars. Imagine Dr Watson feeling a tad frustrated and peeved as his smart-Alec, know-all friend, Sherlock Holmes, swoops in to solve another baffling case with consummate ease. All this after Watson’s done all the mind-numbing donkey work.

Description

Intrepid investigators Holmes and Watson continue their fight against crime in a not quite Post-Victorian, steampunk parallel universe. In three more adventures, the intrepid duo tackle a ghostly locomotive, journey to Dartmoor in search of a gigantic hound, and team up with bloodthirsty psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter in the hunt for a murderer.

Adult humour throughout.

Curse of the Baskervilles is book #3 in this Victorian comedy adventure series.

If you love historical mysteries, buy something else instead, but if you’re into fart-gags and innuendo this’ll be right up your Victorian street.

My thoughts

I love something different, especially if it makes me chuckle and this had me laughing from start to finish. Imagine Dr Watson feeling a tad frustrated and peeved as his smart-Alec, know-all friend, Sherlock Holmes, swoops in to solve another baffling case with consummate ease. All this after Watson’s done all the mind-numbing donkey work.

This is the basis for an irreverent comedic romp at the expense of crime literature’s most famous double act. Watson, determined to show his friend he can solve baffling cases, gives a slightly offbeat version of events that’s a delight to read. Better still, I loved Watson’s feisty and amorous wife, Mary, who showed a flair for kicking ass and putting the men in their places.

Inventive, irreverent and hugely entertaining, the Watson Letters will leave you laughing, and occasionally gasping in disbelief as the detective duo trample over convention and good taste to solve some of the most baffling (and curious) cases imaginable. Even an appearance by Hannibal Lecter seems perfectly in keeping as modern characters and events are thrown into the Victorian melting pot of Holmes and Watson.

Once I tuned into the humour and went with the flow, I thoroughly enjoyed the stories, which got better as I progressed, reaching an epic climax in the Silence of the Lambtons.

Colin Garrow is fast becoming one of my favourite authors and I would thoroughly recommend his books to anyone who enjoys a good and irreverent laugh.

5/5 stars